"Carter Tried To Stop Bush's Energy Disasters - 28 Years Ago"
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0503-22.htmIn early 1980, with the caucus in corn-rich Iowa upcoming, Carter called for $1 billion to stimulate ethanol production.
But Ronald Reagan, with his "morning in America" mantra, won the election. His administration soon began killing off many of Carter's energy initiatives.
Reagan halved the Energy Department's conservation and alternative fuels budget, according to Hakes. Spending on photovoltaic research dropped by two-thirds. Yet tax breaks for ethanol actually increased, prompting a surge in ethanol plant production.
Reagan's anti-tax, anti-government credo kicked into high gear during his second term. Energy tax credits for homeowners disappeared. With oil prices dropping, more than half of the nation's ethanol producers foundered.
Reagan rolled back fuel-efficiency standards for cars. And, in the summer of 1986, the solar panels atop the White House were taken down.
http://liberallucidity.blogspot.com/2007/02/carter-and-reagan-on-engergy.html Those of you with keen memories may recall that the energy crisis is not new. In 1977, Jimmy Carter called it the "moral equivalent of war." In the sort of speech a politician rarely delivers, he told a not-particularly-grateful nation that his energy program was going to hurt, but "a policy which does not ask for changes or sacrifices would not be an effective policy." The core of his initiative was conservation. Carter had earlier asked us to lower our thermostats and wear sweaters. He wore one himself.
Reagan, who succeeded Carter in the White House, wore only a smile. For him, there was no energy crisis. Whereas Carter had insisted that only the government could manage the energy crisis, Reagan, in his first inaugural, demanded that government get out of the way. Speaking of general economic conditions at the time, he said, "Government is not the solution to our problem." He went on to call for America to return to greatness, to "reawaken this industrial giant," and all sorts of swell things would happen. It was wonderful stuff.
To contrast the two speeches is like comparing the screeching of a cat to the miracles of Mozart. Yet today, Carter's speech reads as prescient. Most of his dire predictions — "It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century" — have generally come true, although not quite as soon or as calamitously as he had warned. The pity of it all is that in American politics, being right is beside the point.
It is not my intention to pummel the late Ronald Reagan for what he did or did not do back in the 1980s. It is my intention, though, to suggest that Reaganism — to which Republicans now swear allegiance — has outlived its very short usefulness and ought to be junked. This is not to say that government is the answer to all our ills. It is only to note that if you think the answer is private enterprise, then drive to the nearest gas station and admire the prices brought to you by private companies.
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/08/who-got-us-in-this-energy-mess-start-with-ronald-reagan/